Southeastern Council of Foundations Elects New Trustees

The Southeastern Council of Foundations has elected six new trustees to its board for three-year terms.

Atlanta, GA (PRWEB) January 23, 2006 -- The Southeastern Council of Foundations, a membership association of grantmaking foundations and programs representing 11 southeastern states and approximately $30 billion in philanthropic assets, has elected six new trustees to its board for three-year terms. The new trustees are:

Ted Alexander, chief executive officer, Lower Pearl River Valley Foundation, Picayune, MS;

H. Scott Davis, Jr., trustee, Mildred V. Horn Foundation, Louisville, KY;

Byron Harrell, president, Baptist Community Ministries. New Orleans, LA;

Handy L. Lindsey, Jr., executive director, Cameron Foundation, Petersburg, VA;

Suzanne Ward, executive director, CommunityCare Foundation and the Northwest Arkansas Community Foundation, Springdale, AR; and

Jan Young, executive director, Assisi Foundation of Memphis, Memphis, TN

Alan Rothschild, Jr., trustee, Mildred Miller Fort Foundation, Columbus, GA was elected to a second term. Dennis Riggs is completing the term of Andrea Reynolds, vice president and chief operating officer, Community Foundation of Greater Memphis, Memphis, TN.

About the New Trustees

In June of 2000, Ted J. Alexander completed his 43rd year of service in the field of education for the state of Mississippi. He has worked as a science teacher, English teacher, coach, counselor, assistant principal, principal and superintendent. For 14 years, he served as president of Pearl River Community College.

In July 2000, Alexander became the first president and chief executive officer of the Lower Pearl River Valley Foundation. Under his leadership, 80 health-related proposal approved and funded by the foundation have provided $2.8 million to enhance the health and well-being of residents of the Lower Pearl River Valley area.

Alexander is a graduate of Millsaps College in Jackson, MS, and holds a master’s degree from Mississippi College, and a doctorate from the University of Mississippi.

Scott Davis has been a trustee of the Mildred V. Horn Foundation since 1987. Other foundations for which he has served as trustee include the Lanier Mansion Foundation and the May Wetherby Jones Foundation. He has been treasurer and board member of the University of Louisville Foundation since 1996.

Davis has worked for Banc One Kentucky for almost 40 years. He is senior vice president and manager in the bank’s trust investment division.

Davis has served as president of the Louisville Donors Forum and of the Center for Nonprofit Excellence Among the many other organizations he has served are the Arthritis Foundation of Kentucky; the Lanier Mansion Association; the National Arthritis Foundation; the Metro United Way of Louisville ; the Kentucky Foundation for Women; and the Community Foundation of Louisville, Inc.

Dr. Byron Harrell is president and CEO of Baptist Community Ministries, a private health-legacy foundation in New Orleans.

He has nearly 30 years of experience in health systems management, hospitals, HMOs and related fields. His career has included serving as president of Christian Health Ministries and of Southern Baptist Hospital, both in New Orleans; as CEO of Baptist Medical Center-Princeton in Birmingham, AL and of Baptist Medical Center-DeKalb in Fort Payne, AL; and as vice president at Baptist Medical Center-Montclair in Birmingham.

Harrell serves on the boards of the Rotary Club of New Orleans, Healthy Lifestyle Choices, the School Leadership Center, and the United Way Community Data Center.

He holds a doctorate in health services research from Tulane University, a master’s degree in science from Trinity University and a bachelor’s degree in business administration from West Texas A&M University.

Handy Lindsey has spent 25 years in professional philanthropy. Before joining the Cameron Foundation in 2004, he served as executive director and treasurer of the Field Foundation of Illinois from 1988 until 1997, when he was named president. Prior to that, he was assistant director of the Chicago Community Trust. From 1980 to 1986, he held positions ranging from staff associate to executive director at the Chicago Area Foundation for Legal Services.

Lindsey was instrumental in developing the East St. Louis Community Foundation, where he was interim executive director in 1985-86. He served on the board and the executive committee of the Donors Forum of Chicago, and for two years as chairman. He has also served on the board and management committee of the Council on Foundations.

Lindsey holds graduate and undergraduate degrees from the University of Chicago.

Suzanne Ward served as an aide for health and social service issues to Governor David Pryor and then opened the Levi Strauss Foundation office in Little Rock in 1979. Ward then moved to San Francisco to become the Levi Strauss Foundation’s director of national giving programs. She also served as director of public relations for Syntex Corporation, a Palo Alto pharmaceutical firm, and as a consultant to new corporate foundations in Silicon Valley.

In 1998, Ward returned to Arkansas. In June 1999, she joined the CommunityCare Foundation, where she led the planning process that established the Northwest Arkansas Community Foundation.

Ward earned a bachelor’s degree from the University of Arkansas and a master’s degree from Pennsylvania State University

Since 1995, Jan Young has served in various positions at the Assisi Foundation of Memphis. She became executive director of the foundation in January 2005.

Since 1998, Young has practiced complementary medicine at the Healing Arts Medical Group. From 1991-1994, she was senior vice president of operations at St. Joseph Hospital in Memphis. From 1987-1991, she was associate chief of nursing service and extended care at the Veteran’s Administration Medical Center in Memphis. She served as assistant head nurse at St. Joseph Hospital from 1982-1986.

Young holds a bachelor’s degree from Memphis State University, a master’s degree from the University of Tennessee and a nursing degree from the St. Joseph Hospital School of Nursing. She is a brigadier general in the Tennessee Air National Guard.

C. Dennis Riggs has been president and CEO of the Community Foundation of Louisville, Inc. in Louisville, KY since 1991. He has served in many other community leadership and non-profit roles, including executive director of the Louisville Fund for the Arts, vice president of Bellarmine University and vice president at the Louisville Presbyterian Theological Seminary.

Riggs serves on the board of the Council on Foundations and is a past chairman of that organization’s Community Foundations Leadership Team. He is a member of the University of Kentucky’s Nonprofit Leadership Initiative Advisory Council, of the Thomas Merton Foundation and of the board of the Foundation for the Institute for Cellular Therapeutics. For three terms, he was chair of CARITAS Health Services. He is a retired member of the officiating staff of the NFL and currently serves as league officiating observer and scout.

The Southeastern Council of Foundations is a membership association of approximately 350 grantmaking foundations and programs in 12 states representing more than $30 billion in assets. SECF promotes excellence throughout the field of philanthropy and the creation of new philanthropic resources to benefit the Southeast. For more information, contact Helen M. Ishii, Director of Communications at 404-524-0911, or visit SECF’s Web site at www.secf.org

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